1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to guns which propel lightweight projectiles using compressed gas as a propellent. More particularly, it relates to an improved gun barrel for use in combination with a gas powered projectile gun firing soft or pliable ammunition such as paint balls.
2. Prior Art
Compressed air powered guns, such as paint ball guns are widely used in the forestry industry to mark trees for cutting or for saving from cutting. An even more popular use for paint ball guns is in recreation where the participants fire such firearms to propel a soft paint ball from the barrel to a target. The target may be a conventional moving or stationary paper or other target used for target practice. Or, the target of the paint ball disbursed by the gun might be another participant in a game or war game simulation wherein the participants are attempting to hit each other using paint ball guns which fire the soft paint filled projectiles.
Conventionally, paint ball guns function to fire a plastic walled, paint or gelatin filled projectile using compressed gas as the source of power, to accelerate the paint ball down an axial chamber formed in a gun barrel. The paint ball enters the barrel at the breech end from a reservoir, and accelerated by compressed gas, thereafter exits from the muzzle or distal end of the barrel, toward the intended target. Such air guns are conventionally powered by a source of compressed air or gas mixture communicated to the gun from a pressure source. Normally the communicated compressed gas supply comes from a hose connected to the gun or from a canister of highly compressed gas of the user"" choosing, attached to the gun. The communicated pressurized gas, using a trigger or other activation switch operated by the user, then passes through a conduit system in the paint ball gun to power the paint ball or similar soft walled projectile down the barrel attached to the paint ball gun.
The devices disclosed herein are directed at an improved barrel configuration for use in combination with a gas-powered gun which fires paint balls or similar soft walled pliable projectiles, to greatly improve the accuracy of the projectile fired from the gun as well as the actual mechanical performance of the gun. By using the gun barrel with one, or all of the different improvements herein disclosed, a significant improvement in the accuracy of a paint ball or other soft projectile, fired from the gun used in combination herewith, is achieved.
Prior art in the area of air powered guns, and especially paint ball guns, use canisters of liquid CO2 or other compressed gas communicating high pressure gas supply to regulators to provide a regulated gas supply to the gun. Gun barrels used conventionally on paint ball guns feature a smooth bore wall surface of the axil barrel chamber to protect the delicate soft wall surface of the paint ball from damage during travel down the barrel chamber.
Upon exiting the gun barrel, should the paint ball be spinning one way or the other in relation to the barrel, such a spin will affect the trajectory, and ultimately the accuracy, of the discharged projectile in hitting the intended target. Much like a golf ball, which if struck poorly, will spin and cause the ball to hook one direction or the other, a paint ball will also divert from its straight path if spin is imparted to the paint ball as it exits the barrel. Further, paint balls are deliberately formed to be soft have a liquid center covered by a thin plastic or gelatin membrane which maintains the paint ball in gum ball or globe like shape. This soft formation and thin walled construction causes frequent deformities in the shape of the paint ball making them less than perfectly round and a non perfect sphere shape. Also, a seam formed in the plastic membrane covering the liquid center of the paint ball, which is formed during manufacturer, also tends to interrupt the otherwise smooth exterior surface of the plastic membrane defining the shape of the paint ball. This seam has a natural tendency to cause spin of the paint ball when it contacts the conventionally used smooth wall bore of paint ball gun barrels.
The lack of consistency in size and shape of the paint ball ammunition can further be affected by temperature and humidity of the site where they are used. Humid weather tends to swell the paint balls larger from their original size from the water in the air softening the plastic membrane defining the dimensions of the paint ball. Hot weather increases the volume of the paint contained in the ball due to expansion thereof, and thus also At affects the overall dimensions of the paint ball during use by pressing outward on the plastic membrane cover.
Conventional smooth bore paint ball gun barrels do little to rectify the ball spin caused by the imperfect paint ball exterior surface and the variance in size caused by manufacturing or temperature and humidity at the site of use. Expanded paint balls from humidity and/or temperature spin worse on exit from the gun barrel due to increased contact with the sidewall of the axial barrel chamber. Imperfect surfaces such as the seam of the paint ball also impart spin to the exiting paint ball due to contact with the interior surface of the gun barrel. Combinations of temperature, size differential, and surface imperfections can combine to affect the trajectory of an exiting paint ball severely, and render the accuracy of the gun to a very poor state.
Finally, many conventional paint ball gun barrels include a muzzle break at the distal end of the barrel where the paint ball exits toward the target. Conventional muzzle breaks used on air guns and especially paint ball guns, are formed using drilled holes or slots in the gun barrel in a direction perpendicular to the barrel. Such conventional venting allows for some of the compressed gas to the rear of the paint ball or other projectile to vent at the distal end of the barrel thereby allowing the projectile to exit the barrel with less disturbance of the air around it. The result being a lessening of gas pressure caused disturbance at the rear of the projectile and the lessening of the accuracy of the projectile to do air disturbance around it on an exit from the barrel.
Further improvement of the accuracy provided by the barrel device herein disclosed can be achieved by placement of an improved muzzle break at the distal end of the barrel. The disclosed improved muzzle break provides increased efficiency in culling compressed gas from the projectile using elongated oval slots in the distal end of the barrel parallel to the center axis of the gun barrel, and angling the sidewalls of the slots at an angle between 30 to 50 degrees, an active parsing of the gasses, to the rear of the projectile is achieved. The use of angled sidewalls thus yields a significant improvement over conventional round perpendicular apertures that is just an exit orifice for such gasses, as in conventional muzzle brakes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,406 (Dumont) teaches an improved paint ball gun with components designed to improve loading and firing mechanism of the paint ball gun. However Dumont lacks any improvements to the barrel that would decrease spin on exit of the paint ball from the barrel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,945 (Slonaker) teaches an improved paint ball for use in an improved paintball gun to be used in combination therewith. However Slonaker requires special paintballs that are used in a spirally grooved barrel and would not be compatible with the majority of conventional paintballs in use world wide. Slonaker teaches a barrel that would actually impart additional spin to conventional paintballs.
U.S. Pat. 5,850,826 (Guthrie) teaches a blow gun for powering paint to the intended target but lacks any improvement on the conventional smooth bore barrel used to direct the paint ball projectile.
U.S. Pat. 5,228,427 (Gardner) features an improved barrel for use in combination with a paint ball gun and paint balls. Garder teaches the use of a plurality of apertures through the barrel wall to form a pair of helixes in the barrel. The apertures allow a venting of gas from behind the projectile however the heliacal nature of the placement imparts spin to the paint ball.
As such, there exists a need for an easily and inexpensively manufactured gun barrel for use in combination with a gun that fires soft projectiles such as paint balls. Such a device should compensate for spin of the exiting paint ball caused by the manufacturing deficiencies and deviations in dimensions of the paint ball and other soft projectile shells. Such a device should also help to stabilize the trajectory of soft projectile ammunition which suffers from dimension differences caused by heat and humidity acting on the paint ball ammunition. Such a device should further compensate for the spin or directional characteristics imparted to the paint ball by surface imperfections of the soft membrane defining the outer surface of the paint ball, as well as the fact that soft ammunition deforms during acceleration down a gun barrel causing uneven contact with the interior wall surface of the barrel. Further improvements can by achieved in paint ball ammunition accuracy by the provision of an improved muzzle break design at the distal end of the barrel, which will actively parse gasses from the barrel to reduce the drag and eddy currents on the exterior surface of the exiting paint ball.
Applicant""s improved paint gun barrel device provides an easily manufactured and attached paint gun barrel for use in combination with a compressed gas operated gun firing paint balls or similar soft projectiles. It features a system of longitudinal spin prevention grooves which interrupt the smooth bore surface interior of the axial chamber of a gun barrel. The longitudinal spin prevention grooves act to contact and form to the exterior surface of the paint ball as it accelerates through the gun barrel from the breech end to discharge at the muzzle end of the barrel. In the current best mode the longitudinal grooves in the interior surface of the barrel are formed in an arch or curved shape and have rounded corners at the intersection of the arched indentation with the smooth bore surface of the barrel interior. The arched spin prevention grooves thus provide an area for the plastic membrane of the paint ball to naturally expand, while concurrently preventing tearing of the delicate membrane through the use of curved edges of the slot itself and the corners of the slot where it intersects the smooth bore surface at each end of the slot.
The arched longitudinal groves are formed in the bore of the gun barrel substantially parallel to, and equidistant from, the center axis of the axial chamber of the barrel. A plurality of the arched groves extend substantially the entire length of the interior bore of the barrel and thus contact and hold the exterior surface of the paint ball or other soft pliable projectile which expands into the groves during travel through the barrel. The result being that imperfections in size and exterior surface are compensated by the ability of the paint ball to slightly expand into the arched spin prevention groves thus preventing spin from being imparted to the paint ball. The use of rounded corners at the end of the arch forming the groove where it intersects the bore surface, and an arched shaped slot forming the spin prevention groves, prevent laceration of the delicate membrane forming the outer surface of the paint tall when it slides down the barrel.
The end result being that paint balls of differing sizes which would normally spin wildly after exiting a conventional barrel, are accommodated and allowed to expand slightly into the arched shaped spin prevention groves during their travel down the barrel, thus preventing such wild spin characteristics on exit from the barrel. Overall accuracy is improved immensely with the prevention of the spin of the paint ball at exit from the barrel.
Further improvement is achieved in the accuracy and operation of the gun by the optional muzzle break communicating with the axial cavity at the distal end, or muzzle end of the barrel. The muzzle break features a plurality of elongated slots having angled sidewalls. These elongated slots are cut into the distal end of the gun barrel and communicate therethrough parallel to the center axis of the gun barrel. As the paint ball or similar soft projectile passes though the gun barrel in the area of the elongated slots, evacuation of air pressure from the vicinity of projectile occurs through the elongated helical slots. This gas pressure evacuation is further aided by the angled sidewalls of the slots which help parse the escaping gas from the interior of the gun barrel and away from the front and rear of the accelerating projectile. The addition of the muzzle break used in conjunction with the aforementioned longitudinal spin prevention groves allows the paint ball to exit from the gun in an even straighter trajectory by eliminating air disturbance on exit from the barrel which would act on the uneven surface of the paint ball to cause spin.
An object of this invention is the provision of a gun barrel to improved accuracy for use in combination with paint ball guns and similar soft projectile guns.
Another object of this invention is to provide a gun barrel that will accommodate the variances caused in the dimensions of paint balls during manufacture and concurrently reduce or eliminate the spin imparted to paint balls in their contact with the interior of the gun barrel during use.
A further object of this invention is the provision of longitudinal spin prevention groves that are formed in the interior of a gun barrel which will accommodated expansion therein of thin walled soft projectiles and thus prevent spin, while concurrently preventing damage to the soft wall surfaces of paint balls or fluid filled soft projectiles.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an improved muzzle break for evacuation of gasses from the distal end of a gun barrel thereby increasing projectile accuracy by diminishing air turbulence reacting on the paint ball when exiting the barrel.
Further objects of the invention will be brought out in the following part of the specification, wherein detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing the invention without placing limitations thereon.